Mal Claims J. Cole's Dreamville Crew Doesn't Like Him

BY Gabriel Bras Nevares
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Mal J Cole Dreamville Crew Doesnt Like Him
J. Cole makes his entrance through the audience during a sold-out crowd on Wednesday, Sept, 23, 2026, at Fayetteville's Crown Coliseum. Myron B. Pitts / USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Mal's past comments on J. Cole allegedly rubbed the Dreamville team the wrong way, but he said he never had any intention to disrespect them.

The New Rory & Mal podcast had a few conflicts to get into this week, as Rory had pressed QueenzFlip and later admitted how he probably read that situation wrong. However, amid this discussion caught by CY Chels on Twitter, Jamil "Mal" Clay spoke on running into people that he knows have issues with him. He claimed he recently ran into the Dreamville crew and its president and cofounder Ibrahim "Ib" Hamad in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago. The commentator and podcaster claimed they seemed angry at him and they didn't engage, which is probably due to his comments about J. Cole.

"This is the first time I ever felt bad about something I said," he remarked. "[That's] somebody who I've always had a pleasant rapport with. This was the first time we've ever seen each other, and never said 'What's up?' to each other. And that's the only thing that I'm like, 'Damn.' As a man, I stand by everything I ever said. I stand by it all... But I felt bad.

"'Cause I'm like, 'Damn, homie, but I wasn't trying to disrespect you. I wasn't trying to disrespect your man,'" Mal continued. "But y'all just know how I give it up... I don't ever want me and this man to feel like we not cool. 'Cause I think Ib is a cool-a** n***a... I felt bad that, for the first time, I saw Ib out in public and we didn't say a word to each other. We looked right at each other. I understand it, I get it. But as a man, I got to disengage that. Because, as men, we know where that could go."

Mal's J. Cole Comments

For those unaware, Mal had called J. Cole's "Love Yourz" rendition "performative," specifically an Ohio show at which the Dreamville MC cried during the performance. The reason why Cole was emotional was because the family of a cancer patient he met through the Make-A-Wish Foundation in 2017 was present. Mal later apologized for this J. Cole criticism.

Elsewhere, he had praise for Cole's "The Fall-Off" tour following years of criticism over the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle. Hopefully Mal and Dreamville can reach an understanding after this debacle.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.

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